Friday, January 31, 2014

THE FRED HERSCH TRIO PUT ON A GOOD CONCERT AT THE LYDIA MENDELSSOHN THEATRE

Eric McPerson, John Hebert, and Fred Hersch

The Fred Hersch trio can
play every popular form of jazz out there. Hersch, drummer Eric McPherson and
bassist John Hebert proved that Thursday night at the Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre in Ann Arbor, MI.

The trio played music from Whirl, Alive At The Vanguard, and test-drove
some new tunes that will be on an upcoming album. Hersch didn’t give the name
of it or the release date.

The trio has a reputation
for being imaginative, and daring with a blue-collar work mentality. McPherson was
the only showman, showing on Sad Poet that
he can navigate tempo changes without breaking a sweat. Hebert is a
well-rounded ally the trio couldn't survive without.

The trio mixing Hersch’s tune Floating with Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman came across as a salute to free-jazz. It was a fist-pumping moment.

Hersch did some incredible
things on the piano without being showy. He can swing from zero to 60 at will,
but his God given gift is playing ballads.

The ballads the trio played last night,
especially You the Night and the Music
could’ve softened up the hardest death row inmates. The trio wasn’t big on
frills but it put in an honest night’s work.